Reading Log, May and June 2007

Now that July is nearly over, I must post this list, because the need to post it is keeping me from posting anything else. Without further ado...


Sala's Gift, by Ann Kirschner--As I've said before, I find Holocaust stories compelling, and I can't resist reading them, not so much for pleasure as for knowledge and understanding.

Many Thing You No Understand, by Adaora Lily Ulasi--Just as I've had some of my reading focusing on WWII and Germany recently, I ended up reading this book in close proximity with another book set in Africa, which always makes me feel as if I'm getting to see things in sharper relief. (I'll put that book in my July list, assuming I make one in a timely fashion.)

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak--Wonderful, well-told story. I will read this one again.

The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield--another book that I loved and will mostly likely read again. These character-driven books always win with me.

The Good Soldier, by Ford Maddox Ford--I wrote a good bit about this when I read it. It was an interesting "unreliable narrator" story.

Ladder of Years, by Anne Tyler--I thought I wrote a nice summary of this at the time I read it, but I guess I didn't. I do recall that it was very well written (Anne Tyler is an award-winning author, and deserves it), and that the main character left her family because they didn't appreciate what she did, only to end up doing the same things she was doing before, except for other people. In the end, she makes some good friends, and ends up back with her family, but the story wasn't entirely satisfactory.

Remembering, by Wendell Berry--now THIS was an amazing (if short) book. Deserves a whole post of its own, so I won't say much here, except to say that it was a breath of fresh air after some of the more negative and depressing material I had been reading.

From Dawn to Decadence, by Jacques Barzun--only some, not enough, and I am woefully behind.


Don Quixote, by Miguel Cervantes--only about 100 pages so far, but enough to be amused.

The Approaching Storm, by Nora Waln--another book that needs a whole post to itself, as I've said before.

Candide, by Voltaire--I'm listening to this at Librivox, and I'm only about 1/3 of the way through it.

I really needed to get this list into the blog before I completely forgot everything. I'm pretty sure there was another book I read (at least one), and I know there was one I started and abandoned (my second abandoned book for the year), but I can't remember the title of either of them, so this will have to do. I'll edit this post if I find the piece of paper on which I conscientiously wrote them down (and then lost).